English language enjoys its glory as an official language of Pakistan and it is used widely as a medium of instructions across educational institutes. Since anxiety retards the learning process, therefore it has been widely researched in the world and seems under researched in Pakistani context. Thus, the prime aim of this research is to explore the factors that cause English language speaking anxiety among Postgraduate Students of University of Balochistan (UoB), Pakistan. This study also aimed at determining the statistical significant difference if any across gender. The quantitative research design was employed in which a questionnaire comprising of eighteen items was adapted from the study by Horwitz et al. (1986). Both descriptive and inferential statistics were performed in the SPSS (version, 21). The findings revealed that UOB students were experiencing anxiety due to myriad factors in EFL classroom. The findings of the t-test revealed no statistical significant difference across gender. This paper has implications on both teaching and learning of English as a foreign language in Pakistani context.
Background Adolescence and young adulthood is an important period for substance use initiation and related harms. In the context of the ongoing opioid crisis, the risks for youth (ages 16–29) who use opioids are particularly heightened. Despite recommendations to adopt a developmentally appropriate and comprehensive approach to reduce opioid-related harms among youth, data continue to show that youth are not adequately engaged in opioid treatments and encounter many barriers. The aim of this study is to identify youth-centered opportunities for improving opioid treatment services. Methods This paper reports multi-site qualitative findings from youth participating in the ‘Improving Treatment Together’ project, a community-based participatory project being conducted in British Columbia and Alberta, two western Canadian provinces that have been dramatically impacted by the opioid crisis. Qualitative data were collected during three workshops with youth who used opioids and accessed opioid treatment services in the prior 12 months. These workshops were conducted in three communities following the core elements of human-centered co-design. A multi-site qualitative analysis was conducted to identify within- and between-site themes surrounding youths’ needs for improving opioid treatment service experiences and outcomes. Results Three overarching needs themes were identified from across the communities. The first reflected youths’ difficulties finding and staying connected to opioid treatment services, with the overarching need theme suggesting opportunities to reduce organizational and systems-related barriers to care, such as waiting times and wider information about service availability. The second area of need was rooted in youths’ feelings of judgment when accessing services. Consequently, opportunities to increase respectful and empathic interactions were the overarching need. The final theme was more nuanced across communities and reflected opportunities for an individualized approach to opioid treatment services that consider youths’ unique basic safety, social, and health needs. Conclusions This study identifies fundamental directions for the operationalization and implementation of youth-centered opioid treatment services. These directions are contextualized in youths’ lived experiences accessing services in their local communities, with overarching themes from across sites strengthening their transferability to other settings.
Objectives: Harms from opioid use and opioid-related overdose death have continued to rise in Western Canada, constituting a public health emergency. While the presence of family support is essential to improving health outcomes for people who use drugs, affected family members continue to face considerable challenges in accessing timely and appropriate supports and services, both for their loved ones, and for themselves when needed. The overarching aim of our qualitative project was to employ qualitative methodology to understand family experiences with healthcare and treatment services when supporting a young person seeking treatment for use of opioids and/or other substance use.Methods: To understand the family experience of providing support for a youth or young adult who has experienced harms from opioids and other co-occurring substance use interviews (n = 17) were carried out in Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan, with adult family members (mostly mothers; 12/17) of youth and young adults who had experienced harms due to opioids and other substance use, including overdose death. Qualitative interview data was analyzed using Reflexive Thematic Analysis to distill themes.Results: We identified the following key themes from our analysis: (1) The challenges and stigma encountered when seeking care for a loved one using substances, and (2) The lack of support to address family member mental health needs. In addition to access and system navigation
Objectives:There is a lack of knowledge regarding how diverse young people (ages 15–25) experience opioid use, connect to opioid-related services, and navigate opioid use disorder. Knowledge is urgently needed to inform the development of prevention and treatment for youth. This article outlines a protocol for a pan-Canadian youth engagement summit and discusses the successes and challenges experienced and outlines suggestions for future engagement initiatives of this kind.Methods:The challenges and successes we present are premised on the results of a survey based on the Public and Patient Engagement Evaluation Tool administered to participating youth that consisted of closed-ended and open-ended questions and demographic data, as well as from feedback provided informally to the summit teams and team members’ reflections.Results:About 169 youth participated in the summit and represented diverse youth populations from 6 different provinces with varied experiences with opioid use. The majority of participants were women. N = 126 youth completed a feedback questionnaire. Most of the youth rated the event highly. Most youth felt they were able to express their views, that their views were heard, that a broad range of topics were discussed, and a broad range of viewpoints were represented. Most youth felt the event was a good use of their time and were satisfied. Youth were less confident that the summit would impact governmental policies and would be used by relevant stakeholders, including service providers. Summit successes included engagement, the provision of education/information and psychological support, normalization, and validation. Summit challenges related to time and timing of the event, content, and interaction(s).Conclusion:Our summit represented a unique pastiche of youth participation and engagement modalities. Going forward, we suggest that researchers and summit planners ensure youth are engaged in earlier stages of planning, that the content be responsive to a spectrum of youth knowledge about opioids (within site), incorporate flexibility with the formats of interaction, as well as potentially include other stakeholders to improve youth confidence that their feedback will have impacts beyond the summit activity.
Political discourse is inarguably deemed an essential tool, influencing people’s perception within a socio-political zone in an imperceptible manner. The present research titled “Inter-textual Analysis of Political Discourse in Party Manifestos” revolved around a critical discourse analysis of manifestos, as presented by five most popular Pakistani political parties, pertaining to the general election, held during the year 2013. With regard to the present context, the mentioned pursuit primarily aimed at linguistically analyzing the political discourse of the aforementioned manifestos at inter-textual level. The theoretical framework used to substantiate the overall analysis centered on Fairclough’s theory of intertextuality (1995) and van Dijk Ideological Square(2004). The findings of the research revealed that all the political parties under study, brought into use the discursive strategy of intertextuality in their party manifestos in order to enhance the positive self image of party to in-group people, by hunting the negative aspects of the out-group, thereby (re)constructing people’s political identities and ideologies and achieving the desired hegemony in a way peculiar to itself. Research of the kind can be conducted further by analyzing the other dimensions of political discourse and the resultant ideologies, influencing the current state of affairs as prevalent around the globe with special focus on the linguistic aspects of the political discourse.
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